Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crazy attracts crazy. If a person is attracted to traits like narcissism, Machiavellianism, etc., it’s probably a good idea for that person to look deep inside and ask why. If the person isn’t looking to be emotionally attached, then it might be harmless. But allowing yourself to have feelings for a person with dark triad traits - that’s a one way, self-sabotaging ticket to disaster.

Many of these men are experts at love bombing and masking that side---until you are a few years in. It's intoxicating and they usually pick women that can't fathom that someone can be that evil. There are studies that show they get 'high value kibble' from going after educated, attractive, nice women. I mean, if a high quality woman like that falls for them---they must be the sh*t. Those are the type of women they look to marry---but will end up cheating on.

As the study was summarized, at least, the women ranked these guys high on the dark traits and still thought they were sexy. So, I don't think this is just an issue with women not knowing what they're getting into. On some level, they know, and still like what they see.

These men are seen as 'alphas'. A male that copulates with lots of females and his fancy colorful peacock feathers attracts the women. Then, some other male can stay and raise the child they think is theirs. It's biological.

It doesn't work in reverse. Women that screw indiscriminately are not viewed as high value.

The double standard is also biological/instinctual.

How did they control for the good versus bad men being "equally attractive"?

The one truly Dark Triad woman I have known definitely married a similar partner. They are a terrifying couple and I don't think people are attracted to them so much as afraid that if they don't say nice things about them, the couple will destroy them socially.

Yes macchiavelli was about politics, its dumb to use it as a descriptor of personal relationships rather than matters of state. Intellectually lazy and unscientific. Because most.of these studies have a political ax to grind.

(Wildly off topic, but I think Machiavelli himself gets a bad rap. His attempt at realistically observing political interactions rather than simply engaging in wishful thinking about what ought to be was groundbreaking at the time.)

the Machiavellians - who are mostly predisposed to gaining unjust benefits by trying to mislead, manipulate and exploit others.

Based on the studies made so far, it seems that shared environmental factors have a greater impact on the development of Machiavellian personality trait than genetic factors (Vernon, Villani, Vickers, & Harris, 2008). Parents who are neglecting, psychologically unavailable, who lack warmth and provision of emotional security, or who are severely punishing or rejecting (Jonason, Icho, & Ireland, 2016; Kraut & Lewis, 1975; Láng & Lénárd, 2015; Ojha, 2007; Touhey, 1973), often have children with distorted internal object relations (Janoff-Bulman, 2010; Kernberg, 1975; Kohut, 1971) and early maladaptive schemes (Láng, 2015). This lack of optimal parenting could lead to developing a negative, pessimistic, distrustful, hostile, and cautious attitude in Machiavellian individuals (Rauthmann, 2012).

Since childhood attachment relationships form the foundation upon which all adult relationships are built (Shaver, Hazan, & Bradshaw, 1988), therefore representations of insecure, traumatic object relations experienced in early years of life usually continue to live in adult relationships as well. The representations of experiences of childhood grievances and failures may function as latent vulnerabilities and the frustrating contexts and objects may transfer from their past relationships to the present ones. In order to get rid of their tormented feelings, Machiavellian persons transfer their frustrating, bad objects (which may be self or object representation) along with their negative emotional state into other people and identify others afterwards with these inner contents (Richardson & Boag, 2016). Looking through the distorting glasses, they perceive others as malicious, hostile and threatening, and they condemn people to gain control over the situation and their own internal insecurities. In this self-object relationship the dominant emotions are anger, hatred, contempt, and desire for revenge (Ináncsi, Láng, & Bereczkei, 2015). These are the processes of transference and projection (projective identification), immature defense mechanisms often used by Machiavellians to cope with their anxieties (Richardson & Boag, 2016).

Chris Rock is someone I admire deeply. His success is not an accident. I think you cannot achieve what he has as an entertainer without enormous grit and a good deal of intelligence in one of the most competitive industries conceivable.

The unique component of Machiavellianism is high negative affectivity – depression, anxiety, self-consciousness – and a distrustful, manipulative interpersonal style. The latter components align with expert ratings but the former do not – so one must ask what can be learned by studying the unique component of MACH or the rest of the dark triad.

These people will often hook up with:

Narcissists that rate extremely high extraversion (warmth, gregariousness; assertiveness) and emotional well-being (e.g., low anxiety, depression).

It's the perfect recipe for an affair. Complete dysfunction. The depressed, distrustful manipulative woman meets the gregarious, love bombing narcissists.

They play out the histrionics they learned in their childhood homes.

Also:

People who report high levels of MACH on existing scales also report poor impulse control. In fact, counter to key descriptions, Machiavellian individuals describe themselves as less competent, ambitious, hard-working, and self-controlled.

Anonymous wrote:What does “dark” mean exactly in a scientific sense? Why are these three personality constellations included but other equally “dark” ones excluded – antisocial, borderline, and histrionic personality disorders, sadism, spitefulness, pettiness, venality, etc.? Why think in terms of a triad at all, rather than talk about them as different manifestations of a single underlying core of interpersonal antagonism (e.g., the degree to which one is callous, manipulative, immodest, non-compliant)?

Really attractive traits

My cheater was officially diagnosed with histrionic personality disorder and high on the narcissism scale. He's like kryptonite to women of all ages.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crazy attracts crazy. If a person is attracted to traits like narcissism, Machiavellianism, etc., it’s probably a good idea for that person to look deep inside and ask why. If the person isn’t looking to be emotionally attached, then it might be harmless. But allowing yourself to have feelings for a person with dark triad traits - that’s a one way, self-sabotaging ticket to disaster.

Many of these men are experts at love bombing and masking that side---until you are a few years in. It's intoxicating and they usually pick women that can't fathom that someone can be that evil. There are studies that show they get 'high value kibble' from going after educated, attractive, nice women. I mean, if a high quality woman like that falls for them---they must be the sh*t. Those are the type of women they look to marry---but will end up cheating on.

This exactly!

What does “dark” mean exactly in a scientific sense? Why are these three personality constellations included but other equally “dark” ones excluded – antisocial, borderline, and histrionic personality disorders, sadism, spitefulness, pettiness, venality, etc.? Why think in terms of a triad at all, rather than talk about them as different manifestations of a single underlying core of interpersonal antagonism (e.g., the degree to which one is callous, manipulative, immodest, non-compliant)?

Really attractive traits

From his study:

Narcissists can also be quite good at putting on an attractive veneer—they might invest more time and effort into their appearance, surround themselves with symbols of money and success, and make a greater effort to say the “right” things (even if they aren’t true) in order to appear desirable. [b]

This is what pps think is attractive about themselves. Male cheaters use this to their advantage---they will tell a woman all kinds of lies and say I love you and you are beautiful, etc. When the dark side drops, it gets ugly.